Summer Bucket List - Epiphany Crafts

I've been looking into a summer bucket list for my little family for several weeks now. I want our summer to be filled with magical moments; not magical because they took a lot of planning and effort to pull off, but because they were meaningful, simple, quality family time moments. I found most of my inspiration from this Pinterest board (she has more, too!) and I'm all giddy over the fun stuff we will do this summer. To plan and document our summer, I created this summer bucket list ensemble:

Using my Epiphany Crafts round 25 tool (the large circle), I embellished a pen for writing down ideas and a mini album for documenting the events as they happen. The boys insisted on an actual bucket, too ;).

 

One of my favorite bucket list items is to read a stack of books as tall as Mom. My reading list is currently to my knee caps, and I'm still adding to it. With the way my boys read, I'm sure we can get this one done :). One of the books on my list is The Great Gatsby. I figured I needed to give it a re-read after seeing the movie.

 

You can see this project at the Epiphany Crafts blog here. Be sure to check out the Epiphany Crafts blog all week for summer-inspired projects. There are quite a few mini albums that are absolutely adorable! Thanks for stopping by and have a great day! Tessa

SMASHing - {a flair for buttons}

Hello! After taking a hiatus from my SMASH Sunday posts, I have lined up all new posts and pages for you beginning this coming Sunday, June 2nd! I'm kicking it all off early with a post at the {a flair for buttons} blog today:

I mentioned this book here when I shared the title page.

It's inspired by a set of flair in the shop called Smash Words. Each piece of flair is a prompt, and I have sectioned off my book to respond to every prompt. I started with "loving..." and these are the first couple of those pages:

I'll share the rest of my "loving..." pages on Sunday! Thanks for stopping by, and I hope to see you then! Tessa

Guest Designing for Authentique

Hello, hello! I'm excited to be guest designing at the Authentique blog today! Some of my very favorite projects are made with Authentique collections. I really enjoy working with their papers - the texture is fabulous!

The fourth of July is my favorite holiday. I love everything about it, so when I was told I would be receiving the Pride collection to play with, I was so excited! I decided to collect all of my 2011 Independence Day photos into a mini album, and Pride was perfect for bringing it all together.

You can find my post at the Authentique blog here. If you've come from the Authentique blog, thanks for clicking through and visiting! Feel free to stay a bit and take a look around :).

If you'd like to see more of my album, I'll be adding it to my flickr photostream here very soon.

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day! Tessa

Wild Child - DCWV and {a flair for buttons}

Happy Friday! I had the chance to play with my Neon Chic stack by DCWV recently.

This stack is full of bright colors, tulle, lace and paint splatters - kind of a girlie stack, if you ask me. Perfect for some of my dance routines, I think. However, I was bound and determined to make it work for my boys, and this is the result:

How cute is this kid?! That look - I just roll my eyes and melt! He is such a ham (unless strangers are around - then he's the most shy kid you've ever seen).

I love this font - Soymilk. It's one of my new faves to cut on my Silhouette Cameo.

My favorite part about the layout is this flair, from {a flair for buttons}. I love the stars!

You can find that particular set here. And when you check out, be sure to use coupon code HAPPYBDAY49 for free shipping within the US! Shelley is celebrating her birthday this weekend with this special savings :).

Happy birthday, Shelley! Thanks for stopping by! Tessa

DCWV and Therm O Web Blog Hop

Welcome to my stop of the DCWV and Therm O Web Summer Lovin’ blog hop! If you've just arrived from Erin's blog, you are in the right place. If not, feel free to start at the beginning here.

Today, the design teams from DCWV and Therm O Web have brought together all the things we love about summer. The designers have combined paper from DCWV’s Sunday Afternoon and Everlasting Love stacks, together with a variety of adhesives, mists and other fantastic products from Therm O Web. My project features the Sunday Afternoon stack:

Living in Northern California, nothing signals the beginning of summer to me like Mother's Day. Mother's Day usually arrives the same time as hotter weather, and this year was no exception! So when my hubby got cute and called me a "hot mama", he really could have meant it literally.

Yes, I spent part of my roasting hot Mother's Day in the air-conditioned confines of the emergency room! I'll let you read my journaling, printed on vellum and adhered with iCraft adhesive, for the back story:

I didn't want to print my journaling on cardstock, but I knew that if I used vellum, I would have to hide adhesive marks. Then I thought to use the iCraft sheets, and although the vellum lost a little bit of its transparency, it's still see-through and subtle enough. I used a typewriter font 1) because it's my favorite journaling font, and 2) because it matched the typewriter patterned paper from the Sunday Afternoon stack. Besides the patterned papers from the stack (all adhered with my Sticky Tape Runner), I also pulled all the cardstock from my DCWV stash, including the cardstock used to die cut my title on my Silhouette Cameo (Aharoni and Soymilk fonts).

I embellished with buttons and wood veneer, using Zots singles to adhere each one to my page.

My favorite Therm O Web product to play with was the Sticky Lines. I used them to adhere the ribbon "frame" behind my photo. I hate adding ribbon to layouts because it can be such a pain to glue down, but these lines made it easy-peasy.

So there's my ode to the beginning of summer! Many thanks to DCWV and Therm O Web for the chance to play with your fabulous products! If you'd like to get your hands on some of these goodies, be sure to visit all the blogs today, and leave comments for your chance to win! Two lucky readers will win a set of 3 stacks from DCWV, and an additional reader will receive an amazing gift pack from Therm O Web! The more you comment, the more chances you have to win!
Your next stop on the hop is Karen. Thanks for visiting and good luck! Tessa

Buds - Epiphany Crafts

It's hexagon week on the Epiphany Crafts blog, and I have to say - I love working with this shape! When hexagons first got trendy, I think I got hexagon-overload. However, now that all the fuss has calmed down a bit, I am really enjoying adding a hexagon here and there, where they really belong. The new hexagon tool by Epiphany Crafts is definitely inspiring me.

This layout is about my son and his good friend. If every one had a friend, or could be a friend, like this boy, the world would be such a happy place. I'm really glad Colten has this kid in his life :).

I'm finding that more and more, the hexagon tool is a shape I reach for when designing decidedly masculine layouts. I love the angles and filling the bubble caps with graphic designs.

I used the April Scrapbook Circle kit to create this page. Yes, I'm a bit behind when it comes to using up my kits ;). I went with a kraft/gray/black color palette. It was fun to take a break from bright color!

Oh my goodness, and I'm just realizing...hahaha! It looks like the "swell" speech bubble is coming from the dog die-cut's derriere. Oh dear. I did have that speech bubble up higher, like it was coming from Colten's friend, but I dropped it when I was adding it to the page. I couldn't adjust it because I used liquid glue that would smear all over the vellum I backed the wood chips with. Ha! On a technique note, backing the wood chip with vellum helped it pop off of my page more, without losing the pattern behind it. I ran the wood chips through my Xyron sticker maker (they barely fit, but it worked!), then attached them to a sheet of vellum. I trimmed the pieces out and used liquid glue behind the wood sections to attach them to my page.

You can see my post at the Epiphany Crafts blog here. While you're there, enter to win your own hexagon tool and accessories!

I've got a busy, long weekend ahead of me. When everyone else is cheering for the work week to be over, I'm gearing up to go to work. It's our last competition of the season - rehearsals today, compete tomorrow. Wish us luck! Tessa

"Mother" Altered Book - SEI

Our library always has free books in the lobby, books that are too old to keep on the shelves for borrowing. I sift through them every time we go in, looking for beautiful colors, covers with vintage patina, and pages with pretty text or pictures. I recently found a small, yellow book that I decided to alter.

I used my favorite papers by SEI, gold leaf stickers and metallic gold paint by Martha Stewart, washi tape, mist, vellum, and even antiqued paper from an old fashioned mercantile store that I picked up on a field trip a few weeks ago.

I decided on the theme of "motherhood" because Mother's Day was approaching as I made the book. I typed up several of my favorite quotations about mothers in my favorite font - Traveling Typewriter. I also used my Silhouette to cut the words "mother" and "mom" several times. I love that font, too - Grand Hotel. While looking around the Silhouette store for some flower files, I came across several that SEI made. I downloaded them at once and you can find them all throughout this book.

I edited about 50 photos of this book and just couldn't narrow down my favorites for this post. So, I made a slideshow:

You can find more details about the book at the SEI blog today, here. Also, I'm adding all the photos of the book to my flickr photostream, here. I hope your Mother's Day was lovely :). Have a good one! Tessa

Mother's Day Corsage - Epiphany Crafts

Between filling orders for the shop, I've been collecting many, many new fabrics for the upcoming Summer update. One in particular just seemed to call to me when I sat down to make my latest Epiphany Crafts project:

I just love the deep coral-pink and the floral print! You can read through the post at Epiphany Crafts here for the how-to. All of the flowers you see here are currently or will be in the shop for the update, June 1st.

I love using my Epiphany Crafts tools to create the flower centers. I used the oval tool and the small round tool here. The settings are spray-painted gold, but the original silver finish they come in is very pretty, too.

As I mention on the Epiphany Crafts blog, making my mom and mother-in-law fabric flower corsages for Mother's Day has become a tradition. I love seeing them wear their flowers with their Sunday best, on Mother's Day and other days throughout the year. And I know my mom is always happy to tell anyone who asks that her daughter made it! You gotta love Mom :).

Have a great day! Tessa

PS - I'm entering this brooch in the Mother's Day Your Way contest, Best Craft/DIY category, found here. It's all about great Mother's Day gifts under $25.00. My brooch came in well under that mark. Wish me luck :).

Edited to add: My brooch received an honorable mention :). See here. Thank you, NerdWallet!

Fiskars and SRM are sew cute together!

Today and for the next two days, Fiskars and SRM Stickers are teaming up to bring you projects inspired by both company's products. I've long been a Fiskars fan, as evident by my scissors, trimmers, and the majority of punches in my stash. I had the wonderful opportunity to work with one of the XXXL punches and SRM Stickers to create calendars:

You can read all about my process on the Fiskars blog here. I also created a step-by-step photo tutorial for making these sewing pattern paper flowers. You can find it via Fiskars here.

I used the May Scrapbook Circle kit and add-on to make my calendars, with the addition of felt roses from  my Etsy shop, Precocious Paper.

I am planning to gift these calendars for Mother's Day, but you could also apply this idea to a teacher gift (the end of the school year is just around the corner!).

Be sure to check out Fiskars and SRM Stickers. Thank you to both companies for the opportunity to play with your fabulous products :). And thank you for stopping by today! Tessa

Swagger meets Cowboy at Fancy Pants Designs

Hello! Or should I say, Howdy! I've got a layout up on the Fancy Pants Designs blog today all about my 4 year old's cowboy birthday party. I used the Swagger line in a "western" way, and it turned out great!

I created a sketch for this layout, as well as a matching card, so please check out the post and let me know what you think! Other than paper and pen sketches, this is the first layout sketch that I've created and shared. I hope you find it useful! You can find the sketch here.

I've got a lot to catch you up on - it's been a whirlwind couple of weeks! Stay tuned, this gal will be a regular blogger again starting now ;). Have a good one! Tessa